Double delight hits high notes on local scene

In one of those exceptional weekends that are becoming more frequent, two performances showed the best of Atlanta’s classical scene while hinting at our standing in the wider world.

Friday evening, with Philip Glass’ 1984 minimalist masterpiece “Akhnaten,” the Atlanta Opera proved its supposedly conservative audience is willing to enter the late 20th century.

It was the hottest ticket of the season, with sold out performances and great acclaim at evening’s end.

No surprise: Glass’ repetitive, pulsating musical style has entered the popular imagination, from movie soundtracks to TV commercials. Yet “Akhnaten” —- here in a co-production with Emory University and performed at the school’s Schwartz Center —- doesn’t easily fit standard opera categories.

The story is rich, concerning the ancient Egyptian pharaoh who overthrew the old priests and created the world’s first monotheistic religion, about a century before the period of Hebrew bondage. He might have inspired Moses. With his mother by his side, Akhnaten might also have inspired the Oedipus saga.

But Glass’ opera is more pageant and ritual than linear drama. The libretto was drawn from historical texts, compiled by Shalom Goldman, who now teaches at Emory.

Even the central characters —- Akhnaten (John Gaston), his mother Queen Tye (Kiera Duffy), his wife Nefertiti (Mary Ann McCormick) —- remain inanimate and abstract, like bas-relief sculpture. Whole scenes pass with just a few elliptical words sung, often in the ancient languages of Akkadian and Egyptian. (Supertitles and a narrator, Matthew Hendrix, helped clarify.)

Still, like most good operas, the music covers a range of moods and expressions, at turns lofty, lyrical, urgent, brutal. A “Samson et Dalila”-type bacchanal, danced with perfumed exoticism by Theresa Schambach, helped link this anti-traditional work to traditional models.

And Atlanta Opera gave it the same level of preparation and care it gives its usual fare: mostly well sung; smart and literal stage direction (by Richard Kagey); an orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fagen, that caught the sweep of the music, even if some details were blurred.

If the success of “Akhnaten” leads Atlanta Opera toward more adventurous repertoire —- the sort heard in other major cities —- the evening will prove to be of historic importance.

Saturday night, in a more intimate setting, Lawrence Brownlee, a tenor with an international reputation, sang his local debut recital at Spivey Hall. It’s a blessing that he recently moved to Atlanta.

Brownlee, his voice light and piercing, has the gift. In dazzling arias by Rossini and Donizetti, he proved himself a master with ringing top notes and effortless agility up and down his range. His rapport with the audience felt generous, unpretentious.

Pianist Martin Katz was annoyingly loud the entire evening. He made up for it, though, with lovely playing in Liszt’s “Three Sonnets by Petrarch,” where Brownlee sculpted each line like it was a bel canto ballad, making the poems of unrequited love seem confessional and deeply personal.

At his best, Brownlee showed how to set the standard for music making in the entire city.

OPERA REVIEW

> Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten.” Atlanta Opera, Friday at Emory University’s Schwartz Center.

> Tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Saturday at Spivey Hall.